Anaphoric search party
Jonathan Lighter
wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Fri Jun 6 18:25:55 UTC 2014
The studes used to write non-sequitur clauses like this for me fairly
often.
That was before revising on word processors began to encourage it.
The "meaning is rather clear" only because language and experiential common
sense are not identical. (Pulling the rug from under postmodernist
lit-crit claims that "language is the basis of thought.")
JL
On Fri, Jun 6, 2014 at 2:13 PM, victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>
wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: victor steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Anaphoric search party
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The subject header isn't supposed to make sense. Simply consider the
> following pair of sentences in a post from Steve Benen (paragraph break in
> original):
>
> "Recently, for example, the network has sunk its teeth into the plight of
> Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi, a U.S. Marine jailed in Mexico for illegally
> crossing the border with three loaded firearms in his truck.
>
> Instead of sending Tahmooressi home, he was arrested."
>
> The meaning of the second sentence is rather clear. The structure is a
> different matter.
>
> VS-)
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
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